Conventional electronic device systems include a system in which one electronic device receives menu information of another electronic device connected via a network or the like, and merges such received menu information with its own menu information (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 07-177586 (page 1, FIG. 1, and the like) and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-029895 (page 1, FIG. 1, and the like)). Such electronic device system is capable of controlling another electronic device connected, using such merged menu information.
However, in the above-mentioned electronic device system, in the case where it is not possible to manipulate the electronic device having the merged menu due to reasons such as that the electronic device is in power-off state and that its remote control device is lost, it is necessary to manipulate the electronic devices in the system individually, which results in a problem of poor user, convenience. The above-mentioned electronic device system also has a problem of poor operability since the structures or the like of the manipulation menus of the respective electronic devices are not uniform.